Court throws out ex-ISA detainees suit against PM

(Bernama) – KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has dismissed a RM200mil suit brought by former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees M. Manoharan and P. Uthayakumar against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and five others.

Judicial Commissioner Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal allowed the application by Najib and the five others to strike out the suit after hearing submissions from Manoharan, who represented himself, and Uthayakumar.

Senior Federal Counsel Najib Zakaria and Azizan Md Arshad appeared for Najib and the others.

The five others are former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan, the Taiping detention centre superintendent and the government.

Azizan told reporters the judge allowed the application with RM5,000 costs.

When asked for the grounds on which the application was granted, Azizan said there was no issue to be tried in the suit filed by the two ISA detainees.

He said he had submitted that the claim and damages sought by the plaintiff in the suit could not be sustained as the High Court had ruled in their habeas corpus application that their detention was lawful.

Manoharan said he would appeal against the outcome.

In the striking-out application, Najib and the five other defendants said the suit filed by Manoharan and Uthayakumar on Dec 9 last year was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court process.

They said the suit was directly related to a case which had been disposed of by the High Court and Federal Court.

In their suit, Manoharan and Uthayakumar had sought RM100mil each in damages and an annual interest of eight per cent on the grounds that they had been wrongfully detained for 514 days from Dec 13, 2007, to May 9, 2009. – Bernama